Konstantin Kuzakov

Konstantin Stepanovich Kuzakov (1911–1996) (Russian: Константин Степанович Кузаков)[1] was a Soviet journalist and politician and one of the organizers of Soviet television, radio and cinema. Kuzakov claimed that he was an illegitimate child of Joseph Stalin.[2] Konstantin's mother was Maria Kuzakova, who was Stalin's landlady during his 1911 exile in Solvychegodsk, with whom he had an affair. According to historian Simon Sebag-Montefiore, Maria was still pregnant when Stalin left his exile.[3]

Konstantin was enrolled into Leningrad University, possibly with the discreet help of his father. In 1932, the NKVD forced him to sign a statement promising never to reveal the truth of his parentage.[3]

For a while, he taught philosophy at the Leningrad Military Mechanical Institute. Afterward, he got a job in the Central Committee's apparat in Moscow. He served as a colonel during World War II. In 1947, while working for Andrei Zhdanov, a very close ally of Stalin, he and his deputy were accused of being American spies. While he was never officially introduced to his possible father, Konstantin claimed that on one occasion while working in the Kremlin he said, "Stalin stopped and looked at me and I felt he wanted to tell me something. I wanted to rush to him, but something stopped me. He waved his pipe and moved on." Simon Sebag-Montefiore claimed that although Stalin prevented Konstantin's arrest, he was nonetheless dismissed from the Communist Party.[3]

After Stalin's death and the arrest of Lavrentiy Beria, Konstantin was restored in the Party and in Soviet apparat, holding various positions associated with culture, a member of the collegium of Gosteleradio, chief of a department in the Ministry of Culture and other posts.[1] He died in 1996.